John Brawley

Well you're talking about two elements of actor craft here. Acting performance and then staging (blocking). Are you worried about the actors performance or how they're blocking and staging the scene ? Or both ? For sure they're related, but in my view (and I'm a DP not a director) actors want to be lead through a conversation about blocking. It's a negotiation. But there's nothing worse than demonstrating by example or showing them another scene or being literal. Blocking is one of the most mis-understood elements of the craft of filmmaking,. And no one ever says "great staging" or "amazing blocking" when talking about a film they like. They're talk about editing, performance, the photography, the design...but never ever blocking. It takes a while tor realise how powerful a tool this can be and it really SHOULD be the director that drives these choices. From staging / Blocking comes coverage. And it factors hugely in performance. Normally I prefer to have the set cleared, you listen to the actors say the words and then you block. This is a very very crucial and creative time for the director and actor. The director may have really specific ideas about how they want the scene to stage and move through it's dramatic beats. Or you might be looking for them right there and then in that moment and you work WITH the staging as you block to try and labour, extract and bring these beats into the light. Good actors will be able to adapt their blocking as you talk ab out beats that are important. They find ways to "physicalise" what you're asking for emotionally and dramatically. If the issue the OP has here is just "overacting" my best would be to ask the actors to "do less" or "scale it back". As an experiment sometimes it's fun to run the scene without speaking the lines. Just do it in body language. Try a rehearsal like that. Then tell them to do the silent rehearsal with as little body language as possible. There are some great and obvious examples of blocking WITH CAMERA (hey I'm a DP) and how the actor blocking is DRIVING what you do with a camera. here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfqD5WqChUY and here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2THVvshvq0Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gT3FZdMqtVk https://medium.com/@dalonsoperez/mad-max-silhouette-and-clear-staging-fd67eda4b4d9 JB

I'll put my hand up too and say I never use AF and only sometimes use IS. IS is great on static shots, but problematic on moving / tracking shots. Just like gimbals, with many "tells" for bad operating. But I'm not everyone. JB

Goodness me. The camera has two card slots. One is SD. The other is....????? And it can record through to USB-C as well. JB

I don’t believe it actually is the same sensor. All BMD files in RAW are 12bit LOG / 16 BIT LIN. JB

HLG as I understand it is a standard curve applied to footage for final display on a HDR / HLG complient TV. I imagine that this is a bit like using REC709 to monitor. You most likely only want to monitor your image using this curve rather than bake it in. Otherwise it’s like shooting VIDEO instead of FILM. The Pocket 2 does feature the new version of VIDEO, EXTENDED VIDEO. This is an awesome new curve that I’ve been using a lot in other scenarios. This is doing what we all wish VIDEO should have done in the first place. Make a nice looking picture that doens’t require too much post to tweak into something nice. If you wanted to hit the HLG, I’m sure you could easily do a LUT that would do this as well if EXTENDED VIDEO doesn’t push your buttons. JB

The Resident is “only” shot 1920, but it’s 444ProRes, so 12 bit. Fox only air in 720 remember ! I’d say the majority of TV production in the US is still 1920 ProRes. They’re not interested AT ALL in 4K. JB

I think you’ll find the pocket is EOL. I have a few different camera builds for different jobs. Ursa gets used when we need to be hyper intimate with the actors. It’s smaller build means you can go inside the acting space. It gives you more intimate and more reactive coverage. I call this visual jazz. A scene like the two hander with the leads conspiring together is perfect for this. The operating is very improvised. I do multiple takes with very short reset times. On each pass I emphasise different story telling beats, taking my cues from the actors themselves. Between each setup, often without cutting I tell the actors what I’m hoping to catch and then we dance. Each take has a different story beat emphasis. I try to build in the insert shots (like the phone) and also build in trades between the cast to emphasise story moments. Sometimes you’ll do a regular pass with three cameras, all Alexa. This tends to be more conventional storytelling coverage. Then we do a “football” pass with the Ursa at the end in the manner I listed above. A first started calling it a football because that’s about the size of the camera and the way I tend to hold it. I have used the Olympus a little, but not much on the Resident. I tend to use the EM1 for its stabiliser and small size.injust did a pilot where we used it a bit. JB

I find ProRes tends to reduce the chance and incidence / severity of moire and aliasing. JB

Well spotted. Yes the shot of the ambulance lights is a stock shot. DNG in most BMD cameras is actually 16 bit LIN, but it gets converted to 12 bit LOG to be recorded as a DNG, and then unpacks in Resolve as 16 bit linear again. And yes. 444 ProRes is mostly what I’m shooting these days and is very very robust. JB

I thought they’d already discontinued the pocket ? Watch that become a cult camera if it isn’t already. I think they’ll keep the micro going for some time. It’s really a different camera. In the photo above the camera has a wooden camera cage, a Noga arm and a BMD 5” VA as the operating monitor. On front is the SLR Magic 10mm T2.1. I’m manually focussing myself, using peaking on the VA. By way of example almost all of this promo is either Ursa Mini Pro or Micro using that exact rig. This whole scene is shot Ursa Mini Pro I have used a LOT of Ursa Mini Pro and Micro in the resident. Not just as an insert camera, but shooting whole scenes using only the Ursa Mini Pro. Most scenes have a mix of Ursa Mini Pro and ALexa, and I’d estimate more than 40% of the show is Ursa Mini. I tend to use the micro camera for these kinds of surgery shots where I can very easily reach into the scene and get super close before diving down to almost inside the surgical field, and then transitioning back to another actor. It keeps it very agile and alive shooting this way. I’d anticipate the Pocket 2 will replace this rig for these kinds of shots. JB

I have no idea. As far as I recall, they only did that once with the pocket. And I do love using the pocket / micro to get shots I can't get any other way. JB

Actually you were pretty harsh on the visual aesthetic and pretty judgy, calling out the filmmaker for being pretentious and daring to call their work a "film". Not exactly collegiate and something that smacks a little of elitism. You weren't just merely asking for an opinion. You assassinated the work first and then asked for an opinion. You weren't merely calling for opinions on if it was cinematic. You slammed the film and a bunch of creative choices that aren't anything to do with the camera it was shot with and asked for consensus on if this was a cinematic piece (and by extention implied if the camera was capable of cinematic work) Then when someone else posted something you thought did look cinematic, you blew it off as not being the camera but the filmmaker. You're tying yourself up in knots a little trying to make a point that I'm not getting. JB

This is someone that's answering questions at BH Photo. They aren't BMD. JB

" Show me some cinematic looking footage shot with this camera" - shows cinematic footage shot with the camera "They could make any camera look good" Yeah we all know that the skills of those shooting are the most important factor in terms of end result. But you asked for cinematic footage from the camera ?? One of those skills though is also choosing a camera / lens package. There have been Zeiss super 16 format Superspeeds as long as the 35mm format ones have existed. They're great and actually pretty cheap. Mostly in AB or PL m ount which can be easily adapted to MFT. Unfortunately at this price there are many users that are new to filmmaking, or maybe see filmmaking as a hobby. Blackmagic are exposing many users to a RAW or even high DR LOG workflow for the first time. I see people slapping on LUTs designed for other cameras, not bothering to grade or even learn Resolve turning out half arsed results. But. If you're willing to step up YOUR game, willing to LEARN how to grade within this workflow, the camera will not hold you back. The codec will not get in your way. It won't guarantee success either, you still have to be able to light, make nice frames and have a plan. But you won't hit a ceiling with the camera very quickly in terms of image fidelity. JB

Yeah I’m hoping the 12-100 IS works on the Pocket 2. It *should* work but I haven’t had a chance to try it yet, mostly due to not having a 12-100 on hand ! JB

And USB-c ? Why bother with HDMI external recording at that point ? But as a long life connector BNC is much better. JB

like this ? http://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/Developer/Camera/20180406-ed2af6/BlackmagicCameraControl.pdf jb

I’ve wanted to get one of these for a while but they’re 5k for the Eksovest. https://eksobionics.com/eksoworks/ I spoke to one of their managers and he told me that Garret Brown (steadicam inventor) had been helping them design a rig for holding power tools. You can see the heritage in the link. JB

Well SDI is the defacto standard. I’m disappointed they went HDMI on the P2. Im no better than others I don’t think, but I’ve somehow gotten away with it. A shade helps a lot. Tilting the screen can help too (when you can) Focus peaking on both the Camera and the VA is very good in my view too. JB

I can’t speak for what Olympus will or won’t do. But they certainly have heard from me about moving in that direction. They genuinely want to do better video, and they need to up their game and then some if they want to truely challenge Panny. JB

I’m not sure I can agree with the absolute claim of “not useable” because...well I use them all the time in pretty bright situations. Yes in some situations the glare makes it impossible but I can make it work the vast majority of the time. https://www.flickr.com/gp/johnbrawley/10XBcm Here’s an operator making do on a shoot in colombia. And here’s a shot on a recent rig Yeah it could be brighter. But it’s not unuesable if you want a camera that’s small and compact. Or it functions well enough as your camera function screen once you fit an external monitor that better suits your needs. JB

I think the EM1 mark 2 is a far better stills camera. 60fps RAW and ProCapture come to mind. JB

This is where I have face palm every-time someone says it's the same sensor and then go onto extrapolate on why the images aren't (or are! ) the same. There's so many things about how you set up the sensor, from how fast you clock it to what other behind the scenes image processing and pre processing you're doing. JB

We’re still talking about the fan ? Like all BMD cameras that have fans (most of them) I’m sure it’s not a problem. Theybuse solid state cooling and a heat pump. The fan move air across the heat bump. It’s low speed and constant. JB

Noise reduction I think, maybe using more than one GPUs ? 3D and HDR mastering... Not much of a difference really, but NR is the one most people miss. JB